Mom Finally Finds Where 2-Year-Old Has Been Hiding Toys, and It’s Not Good

A North Carolina mom was shocked to discover her toddler son’s unconventional approach to hiding things in the house.

Young kids love to hide everyday objects. LoveEvery, a stage-based play company focused on designing activities to support child brain development, says this is known as “enveloping.”

“Toddlers are often fascinated by what they can and can’t see. What does something look like when it’s covered? How much material does it take to completely hide something? Why do some things change shape when draped over others? When something disappears, how can you get it back?” LoveEvery says. “Enveloping involves hiding objects completely from view.”

In that sense, there is nothing out of the ordinary about what Sarah Baker’s 2-year-old son EJ has been up to. It all started during a recent visit to her sister’s house. Baker was in the playroom with her son when he started pointing at a nearby vent and saying the word “orange.”

“My son is 2 and slightly speech-delayed,” Baker told Newsweek. “He’s gotten so much better, but sometimes you still don’t understand what he means. I was worried he put, like, an orange slice in the vent and I didn’t want it to get moldy so I decided to open it to look.”

When she opened up the vent, Baker was quite shocked. “I saw it had a bunch of stuff in there, but I couldn’t quite see all the way in. So I decided to record with the flash on; that way, I could see all the way in,” she said. “That’s where the video I posted came into play.”

The resulting footage, which was shared to TikTok under the handle @mylifewithej, showcases the full extent of the problem with a variety of toys and other items stuffed down there, not just by EJ but by Baker’s nieces and nephews.

“It was years and years of toys, and even a kid’s dress-up shoe, as well as the stuff my son shoved down there and literally no one noticed but me,” Baker said. “I’d say the craziest things I found was probably a crochet hook and some melted crayons.”

Baker said there were probably around six years’ worth of toys and other items stuck in the vent. Thankfully, they have been removed now. “It was so much easier to access than I thought it would be,” Baker said. “I definitely have plans to fix the issue so it doesn’t happen again.”

Sufficiently amused at what had happened, Baker shared the video to TikTok hoping to get a good response. Many of the replies have come from fellow parents who have encountered similar, if not worse.

“Found out all the Hot Wheels and Disney cars i’ve bought my son are shoved into his bedroom vent as well,” one viewer wrote. “We had to call a company to come in and get my sons because he had put the balls from his ball pit down it and they went WAY down in there.”

A third had it worse though, writing: “at least he’s not peeing in them. my nephews did it for months before my sister caught them yellow handed.”

The responses have made Baker feel a lot better. “All the comments were other moms talking about how I’m not alone and it happened to them to and some even worse than me so I’m very thankful for that,” she said.

In the meantime, she said all parents should check their own vents for something similar. “Because it really is a fire hazard and a big deal if not found and dealt with,” Baker added.

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